Laughing Through Travel Blunders: Our Funniest Vacation Mishaps and Lessons Learned

Ever had your perfectly planned vacation unravel before your eyes? Join us for a laugh as we recount our most memorable travel blunders, from mis-booked flights to unexpected RV adventures. There's a lesson in every tale, and we'll share how we've learned to navigate everything from early morning flights and pet boarding to flexible trip plans that prevent road stress. Our stories of spontaneous detours and uncertain departure times remind us that sometimes the best trips aren't bound by a rigid schedule.

Think you're a packing genius? We've got some stories that might make you rethink your strategy! Listen as we compare our packing styles—my tendency to cram the kitchen sink into my suitcase versus my partner's last-minute dash. Whether it's booking hotels for the wrong date or forgetting a razor on a cruise, these travel mishaps are as relatable as they are hilarious. Through these humorous anecdotes, we highlight the very human side of travel preparation and how even the best-laid plans can go hilariously awry.

Air travel brings its own set of challenges, and we've got plenty of stories to share. Ever faced a flight diversion that left you in the wrong city? Or realized too late that your budget didn't account for a spontaneous shopping spree at Disney? We'll discuss the ins and outs of navigating airline policies, managing travel budgets, and the importance of preparing for tipping service staff. As we wrap up, we invite you to reflect on your own travel mishaps and share your tips for smoother adventures. Whether you're a meticulous planner or a spontaneous traveler, there's something for everyone in this journey through the ups and downs of travel planning.

Transcript

Learning From Travel Mistakes

Ryan 0:00

We have all been there, whether it's a missed flight or forgetting to pack something essential. Today, we're sharing some of our biggest travel mistakes we've made over the years and, more importantly, how you can avoid them. Welcome back, I'm Ryan.

Lauren 0:22

I'm Lauren, and this is the Miller's Emotion Podcast.

Ryan 0:24

And yes, you heard that right, we have made mistakes sometimes.

Lauren 0:28

I know, contrary to popular belief, they thought we were perfect.

Ryan 0:31

I mean, I'm pretty dang close. So in this episode we thought it'd be kind of fun to talk about some of our travel mistakes and maybe how we think we could avoid them in the future, Kind of one of those learn through our-our-mistakes situational shows, if that makes any sense. So in this episode we're going to break this down kind of on how you do travel days. I will tell you there'll be RV stuff, There'll be a lot of RV stuff. There'll be flights. I'm sure there'll be some cruise stuff. We may even come up with some new ways to figure out how we messed up.

Lauren 1:05

Spaceships.

Ryan 1:06

Spaceships. I was thinking horse trailers, but spaceships works too Okay. So with that very first kind of idea is like where have we made some of our mistakes in? Like the pre-trip or like the planning stages? Do you have any?

Lauren 1:22

I don't know that they're mistakes, but remember like we have to drop the dogs off at boarding sometimes.

Ryan 1:27

Yeah, most times.

Lauren 1:28

Oh yeah, the 6 am flight is fantastic, until you have to take the dogs to boarding on a Friday while you're supposed to be at work.

Ryan 1:36

We haven't.

Lauren 1:37

The dogs have made it every time they have, we've always made do, but sometimes just those little oversights like that. Always may do, but sometimes just those little oversights like that.

Ryan 1:43

Well, and the interesting thing about that is yeah, but at the same time too, like I'm sure, our most recent flight will get brought up somewhere in this, which it really wasn't our mistake, right, but it was a oh crap situation.

Ryan 1:57

You still have to budget for it. Well, you have to budget for it. And then, on top of that, I think the other side is like it's always a give and take, no matter what you do, and so, like, if we don't take the six or one of the first flights out, you run the risk of later on being delayed or whatever else, and so do you want to take the dogs the day before, do you want to take them day of and risk all that other stuff? And so it's always a tradeoff.

Lauren 2:20

In that sense, I would say one of our first mistakes from the rv side was not trip planning correctly, absolutely, because that creates stress while you're on the road and that's not a place where anybody needs to be stressed no, and we've had stuff happen while we're in the progress of which we'll bring up in a different section.

Ryan 2:41

but and I'm talking about like, so I'll use when I was coming back from this Indiana trip the most recent time and obviously some stuff happened that caused that to be a little funky, but I didn't know when I was leaving during the day. I knew I was leaving that day, I just didn't know if it'd be like noon or 8 PM.

Lauren 2:58

And for clarification, you didn't have control over that decision necessarily.

Ryan 3:02

No, that was just depending on whenever Alliance was done with the rig and I just wanted to go. So instead of just staying the night no matter what which was probably what a normal person would do I wanted to go ahead and get on the road and get at least a little bit of a head start to see what I can knock out the next day. But with that I didn't necessarily. When I do that kind of thing, I put a lot of stops in the RV life and luckily I got to my first one. But you know not, assuming assuming you're going to be able to make it no matter what to a stop is probably a little naive in the RV life.

Lauren 3:36

Very true yeah.

Ryan 3:38

And the only other one I would say too, is when we very first started out was trying to plan. Every teeny, weeny little thing stops, rest, stops like I'll have to go to the bathroom at the 320-mile mark.

Lauren 3:52

We quickly learned that that is not how that works.

Ryan 3:54

No, it's not, and I think, having some flexibility. Now there is the whole, you know, making sure your rig fits under the bridges, that you're not taking any routes that you're uncomfortable with or put you in a position because of the size of your rv, but having a little bit of flexibility. So, like even now, we have two different versions of when we travel. We have when lauren's with me and when lauren's not with me. When lauren's with me, we do a whole lot of more along the lines of we have our big stops and then you, along the way, fill our small ones based on our need. Hey, we need fuel, hey, we need to potty, we want to eat something, that kind of stuff, dogs need to get out and then you kind of find those rest stops, pit stops, restaurants, whatever, and then we pull over when you're not with me and sometimes I have the dog, sometimes I don't. That's not like. It's not as easy for me to just start researching cracker barrels whilst I'm driving, nor should I.

Lauren 4:51

Right, exactly.

Ryan 4:53

And so in that scenario I probably over plan a little bit, but I don't know how far I'm going to get. So I'll pick three to five cracker barrels and just light them up, and then, if I'm good to go for another, however long between the two, I'll just hit bypass and I'll keep going.

Lauren 5:06

but at least I know now, fuel I don't do that with, I only really do that with, like the big overnight stops, that kind of stuff well, and the fuel is really important because there are some stretches of highways that we've been on where there's not a fuel stop for a significant distance looking at you oklahoma yes, so you have to be prepared for that and also remember to factor in that sometimes if your truck says, hey, a hundred miles to empty, it may be calculating that from when you were not towing.

Lauren 5:34

Yeah, we actually did run into that that we got on the road one time and it was like, oh okay, we have this much and we had a hundred mile buffer and we used our hundred mile buffer and that was terrifying and we had zero option. Unfortunately, I mean, besides calling like triple a yeah, um, but there was literally not another fuel stop yeah, you know something else too, that we've made some.

Ryan 6:02

Well, okay, this isn't a us thing, at least yet, thank God.

Lauren 6:05

Knock on wood.

Ryan 6:06

So booking the wrong flight. Okay, we haven't done that, but I don't know if you my dad did.

Packing and Travel Mishaps

Lauren 6:15

Your dad has, and I don't know if you remember this or not. You booked a hotel for me one time when I was out of town by myself.

Ryan 6:21

Oh for the wrong night. I did do that and booked the wrong night Because it town by myself. Oh for the wrong night I did do that the wrong night, because it was a fast book kind of a thing. Yes, and I wasn't paying as much attention as I probably should have been. She was at. You're at a horse show, right?

Lauren 6:31

I was and I show up after a very long day. I'm like I have a reservation.

Ryan 6:35

They're like no, you don't you have one for tomorrow, though, oops. So yeah, my bad, um. So, lauren's, perfect, I'm not moral of the story but my dad.

Ryan 6:47

So when when I still go to pga show every year, but I worked in the industry, I was there a lot more and my dad used to come down and go and and like going and that kind of stuff, and so he he booked a flight. Well, he booked it for 9 pm, not 9 am, he 9 am and that's the only day he could go. So he was going to land, I was going to pick him up from the airport, we were going to go, and then I was going to take him to the hotel my mom was going to, I guess Uber or something Shocker. They went and played at Disney while I had to go into the show.

Lauren 7:17

I can imagine that.

Ryan 7:18

Yeah, but yeah, I got that phone call at about 7.15 as I'm getting ready about to head out the door to go to the show in the morning section of it, and he's like, hey, we messed up. But then they didn't want to fly at nine o'clock at night. So I don't honestly remember what they did. I think they just booked the flight for the next day and they he's got status with Americans so they kind of just worked with them on it, but yeah, so it can happen.

Lauren 7:45

It sure can, and he for record, his dad is a very like type a person spreadsheets and schedules and all kinds of things, so this was very surprising yeah, all right, moving on moving on have you ever had any packing mistakes?

Lauren 8:01

so surprisingly, mine are pretty few. I would say I can, I can make do with quite a bit, and we had you just say I can make do with quite a bit I sure did um. So what I usually do is overpack. I pack most of the closet and I just kind of figure it out when I get there right and we have very different packing styles. I like to pack in pure panic.

Ryan 8:26

Hey babe, we're leaving in 10 minutes. I'll pack in five.

Lauren 8:28

Okay, that's good. Did we do laundry? Because that's the way my brain works, and so that's where I kind of think on my feet the best, whereas if I were to pack a day or two before guaranteed I'm going to miss something.

Ryan 8:40

Yeah, and I mean I understand if you have anxiety anxiety why people would pack multiple days in advance. Or if you're going for a really long time, like if you're spending a month in Italy, which I wouldn't mind doing that I understand. Maybe planning a little further out and kind of building some time to remember what you forgot to put in there, that kind of stuff. I'm very much so, though, like I plan my packing time.

Lauren 9:04

You sure do.

Ryan 9:05

If that makes sense, and so sometimes it's the day of I like to fly in the morning, so typically it's before I go to bed the night before I have to be packed minus toiletries because I need to use them still, and then it's just chunking in there Because and this is where my mistake comes in I always forget something in my toiletry bag.

Lauren 9:24

Always Without fail, there where my mistake comes in.

Ryan 9:27

I always forget something in my toiletry bag, always. There was also one time you forgot your belt I did. I forgot my at a show. I remember I had to go to walmart and buy a dang belt on my way into the show. One year I forgot all of my underwear when on one trip that was fun.

Ryan 9:38

Um. Don't ask what I did um, but inevitably I will always forget something in my bag, though the worst one. I hardly ever forget my contacts, cause I can pre-pack those, cause I wear daily use contacts, but it's pretty common to forget my glasses.

Lauren 9:55

Sure is.

Ryan 9:56

And if you wear contacts you know somewhere about that eight hour line your eyes get tired and a little dehydrated and you just need to take them out and let your eyes breathe a little bit. And I had to push my eyes really far or be blind as a bat. So I always forget something in my toiletries. I think on the cruise we did with your mom and Amy I forgot my razor.

Lauren 10:18

Oh yeah, you did.

Ryan 10:19

Yeah, it's always something in the toiletry bag, because that's the last thing I pack and I'm not awake yet. This is why, when I fly in the morning, I like to pack in the evening, when I'm more awake, because I'm going to get up, I'm going to use it. And I used my razor that morning and I told myself when you're done with it, I shave in the shower, put it, stick it out in the sink so you remember to take it. And I didn't.

Lauren 10:48

I didn't think about it because I wasn't awake and I put it back on the hook in the bathroom and there it sat and we spent like eight dollars for two really bad bick razors on the cruise ship. They were so bad. Whenever I pack I usually look at my closet and I think, okay, did I grab something from every single section of my closet? And people are like, well, that's a little overboard.

Ryan 11:01

I just told you we're going to Bahamas. We don't need the toboggan.

Lauren 11:04

Well, but you know, literally we were going somewhere like that and I was like, ooh, flannel pajama pants and he's like I don't think you need those. I'm like, yeah, but what if? What if?

Ryan 11:20

So obviously I'm the overpacker. Well, and you like to get cozy?

Lauren 11:23

I do.

Ryan 11:23

I love it freezing like almost frostbite temperature in the room.

Lauren 11:27

Which means I need more layers.

Ryan 11:29

Right, and so I do understand that to a point. So have you ever forgotten anything so important? You can't take the trip.

Lauren 11:40

I haven't have you no.

Ryan 11:41

I haven't. That's why I'm asking you. I mean, I've heard stories.

Lauren 11:44

I've had many battles with TSA, but I have not we're going to talk about that in a minute. But I have not forgotten anything that stopped me from being able to go on the trip.

Ryan 11:53

So I know the answer to this, but for sake of conversation I'm going to ask it anyway. So I always travel with my passport.

Lauren 12:01

Right, always, always.

Ryan 12:03

So, regardless if I'm getting on a cruise ship going international, flying domestic, my IDs are in my pocket, my wallet, and I take my passport with me as well. You don't.

Lauren 12:13

Do you want to tell them why you do that?

Ryan 12:16

I was going to ask why you don't, but okay.

Lauren 12:19

Because I don't feel that it's necessary and it's another thing that I might could lose or accidentally leave in the safe.

Ryan 12:27

Why Okay?

Lauren 12:29

Yeah.

Ryan 12:29

Mine stays in my bag. I don't ever take it out.

Lauren 12:31

I know, but then what if something happened to your bag? What if the airlines lost it? What if all these things?

Ryan 12:38

What if you lose your wallet and your driver's license?

Lauren 12:40

Because, like those are in my purse and so then am I going to have my my passport and my photo id in my purse and then if somebody steals my purse, I'm just so sol.

Ryan 12:49

But this comes back to the. That's why it's in my bag and not I'm not my pocket. Now that's different. For guys. I will say you're not going to fit your passport in your wallet it is and um on multiple occasions.

Lauren 12:59

He has one of those teeny tiny wallets I've lost that dang thing so many times it's like once a week y'all. Okay, it's not that bad.

Ryan 13:05

So I was a couple years ago. I was in wisconsin visiting my folks and we were going to the airport. Well, the morning of I had like a midday flight and we went to breakfast and came back and I was going to grab my bag and whatever else I had left. I could not find my wallet and I did not have my passport in that scenario Right, and maybe it was three or four years ago now that I'm thinking of it, but that thing caused me to carry my passport with me at all times, because it ended up just falling in like the most remote crack in their Ford SUV I don't remember the name of it Up in Wisconsin that they have, like now I know, to check the hole between the carpet and the plastic of the center console. But we got to a point where I was an hour and a half away from having to take off and I couldn't find my wallet, which means you're not traveling. Right.

Ryan 13:58

You have to have a picture ID, a government-issued photo ID, to get through TSA. So that was a big like always gonna take my passport.

Lauren 14:05

Plus, you never know when you just gotta fly international on a whim like just gotta hop on out there, because we're good about that and I also think like you have a teeny, tiny wallet and I have a wallet the size of my face, and so if I lose it like that's a problem your wallet is a small purse it. It actually is. It comes with a strap. You can do that does it really.

Ryan 14:25

Yeah, didn't know that so, but yeah, that's why I always travel with it that way. Now, obviously, if we're doing something international, hope you have it, but I wouldn't If you flipped it the other way. If I was going to fly international, would I not take my driver's license?

Lauren 14:40

Well, no, because you're going to take your wallet regardless, so you wouldn't go the extra step to take your license out.

Ryan 14:45

But I do that. I take things out of my wallet I don't need.

Lauren 14:49

Oh, another key difference we're learning a lot about each other.

Ryan 14:52

And so that's. But I like to have the double just in case something were to happen. Now I can still come home, because I'd rather come home than not personally, have we made any on-the-road RV mistakes? And yes, that's my phone, Hi Stacey still.

Lauren 15:17

Like major mistakes. No, I don't think that we've made any big ones. I think there's been a couple of times where I think that we overshot what we could do.

Ryan 15:27

Or I did something stupid because I was very asleep.

Lauren 15:29

Yeah, that did happen too.

Ryan 15:31

That's happened a couple of times. Have you noticed there's a theme, not that event? If he's, not awake.

Lauren 15:35

Mistakes happen.

Ryan 15:36

That's why I don't like to travel that way. I want a minute to wake up, or I want to be as ready as I possibly can be the night before.

Lauren 15:43

Okay, so tell them what happened.

Ryan 15:46

The horse show one right, yeah. Okay, making sure on the same page. So we had. We were in Gulfport. This was our first major trip in our first RV we. This was the kickoff full time for us. We didn't intend it to be, but it became that way because we put all of our, not all of. We put a lot of our and just a spoiler. We came back and realized, like why are we putting our stuff back in? The house is going to sell like it's closing in two weeks.

Ryan 16:15

Like it makes no sense to unpack, to repack, and I don't know that we ever slept another night in the house.

Lauren 16:20

Right, I'm with you.

Ryan 16:21

And so we're down in Gulfport. We're in a it's a horse show scenario. So we're in a field with everybody else. There are hookups. I had everything ready to go, except for electrical. So water was unhooked, sewer was unhooked. We were good to go and we left at do you remember what time?

Lauren 16:40

I know it was early, I just don't remember what time so this was also a time when we each drove a separate trailer right anytime we go to a horse show.

Ryan 16:48

Lauren has to drive the horse trailer and I take the rv and the dogs.

Lauren 16:51

So Julie and I believe wanted to be my friend, julie, I had her horse with me and I believe we wanted to be on the road by 5 am. So for frame of reference that. So I told you you could do whatever you need to do, but we need to, julie and I needed to be on the road by about five.

Ryan 17:07

Well, and that became one of those like well, I have your, your stuff, so it doesn't make any sense to not. So I think we all got up at four and I went ahead and got hooked up if I wasn't already hooked up tonight before, I don't remember that part and I did my normal walk arounds. But again, this was trip numero.

Ryan 17:24

It wasn't our first trip, but it was our first big trip it was I think it was like the second or third trip total, and I did my walk arounds and I I'm going to leave the power cord to the very last minute because we're going to be on the road so long today. I didn't want the batteries to run down too far because we had a residential fridge. We were going to be driving in the dark for the first three-ish hours, and so that was a conscious decision. I pull the slides in, get the dogs in in the truck. I'm ready to go. Completely forgot about the power cord and I don't remember how I realized it was dragging I don't either I think I saw it out of like one of my mirrors or something.

Ryan 18:04

I was like what is that?

Ryan 18:04

and I just stopped in the road, and when I say road, I mean like I didn't make it far, I never even made it off the property no um, I realize now it's a big property, but I couldn't have been more than a couple hundred yards away from where we were, and luckily it's mostly grass and a little bit of gravel, so it wasn't like I had torn the power cord up massively, because if you drive down the road that way, that rubber is going to burn off as it drags, and so, yeah, I just almost pulled their pedestal out of the ground. Luckily I didn't do any damage to the pedestal. All we did was bend one of our prongs a little bit the neutral prong on our 50 amp and that bent back reasonably.

Ryan 18:42

We did eventually have to replace it, I'm sure because of that, but it lasted a little bit.

Lauren 18:47

But yeah, other than that I don't think there's been anything major on the road.

Ryan 18:52

What about air travel and everything else? We can go on for days about travel mistakes this way.

Lauren 19:00

Again, I don't think that we've made major mistakes in that. Usually we try to plan pretty well so that we have buffers. I guess you could say that we're not flying in at 10 o'clock the night before we're supposed to be at work.

Ryan 19:13

Right.

Lauren 19:14

You know things like that. We're really not timing it that close because, surprise, the airline industry is not known for that sort of thing.

Ryan 19:21

Well, I think the biggest mistake we've made in air travel has been trusting the airlines completely.

Lauren 19:28

Exactly, and that's kind of what I'm trying to say is you almost have to like defend yourself in a way.

Ryan 19:33

Well and like even so, delays happen. We that we kind of understand, and I don't I build that into trips, but not massively.

Lauren 19:44

Right.

Ryan 19:44

And there are some times that that build in is one of those. I was going to cut it close, but I'm accepting it Right, like I understand that there's a decent chance that might not happen, as long as everything, as long as everything stays on schedule, it will. But if we're 20 minutes late we're kind of sol flying is. I'm one of those crazy people that actually likes flying to a point yeah, you are um, I like the experience.

Ryan 20:09

I now I don't love the back of the plane coach seats. My purr-purr-purr doesn't fit. So having a little bit of space is key for me to make me happy-happy. But I still enjoy it and even I get a little tired of kind of sometimes how they mess with you. And this travel mistake which I did a whole podcast over this. So I'm not going to go into a ton of detail. Maybe let Lauren vent, if she wants to, a little bit. But essentially we got diverted to Kansas City from Milwaukee trying to get to Dallas. For whatever reason whether it be weather, whether it be the pilots timing out on their service time we could not take back off from kansas city and make our way down the dfw, so we got stuck overnight until the pilots could come back on. In that happening we trusted the gate agent with yes, we'll get a refund for this because it was diverted, because, in his words, by law, we're required to pay you. Well, either he lied blatantly through his teeth or didn't understand the policy and or rule at all.

Ryan 21:18

So, or someone at corporate sucks.

Lauren 21:22

I mean, there's three scenarios here, that's what I'm trying to figure out because I still have an email conversation going about this because his interpretation was that, technically, the weather pattern had ceased Right, our flight plan was not diverted because of active weather.

Ryan 21:40

Yeah, it was diverted because of air traffic Is what he was saying.

Lauren 21:43

American is saying there was air traffic because there had been weather.

Ryan 21:48

Right.

Lauren 21:48

And so we're trying to find the nuance to that as we speak.

Ryan 21:52

Well, and in that podcast I said I was actively talking to them. That has ended and Lauren has taken over now because Ryan was going to murder people.

Lauren 22:01

No, he's not. Please don't say that, not to the public. But no, it is. It's. Sometimes, you know, you talk to somebody else, you phrase it a different way, you get a different answer.

Ryan 22:10

Yeah, so, other than that, I think the only other and this, I don't know how this would be considered a travel day mistake. Um, I mean, we've done little things like wish I had brought a neck pillow yeah um, gotten to the airport a little too early, a little too late, all the kind of basic stuff not eaten before we got on a plane and wish you had five hours later tried to take to take a pocket knife through TSA. Forgot about that one.

Ryan 22:35

The usual, I will say that we I learned my lesson. So the first real big trip I planned for Lauren and I I mean, we did some small stuff, but the first big one was really our honeymoon and we got married and we didn't end that party till about what time it was 10 the party ended at 10 yeah for some reason, I don't remember getting the hotel before midnight I don't know what to tell you, dear so it was late by the time we got there.

Ryan 23:02

Well, and it was our wedding day. We were both spent, right, we're done, and so me and my optimum wisdom was like we're gonna leave the next morning. This will be fun. It's like a carryover to the party. Well, when you've only gotten like five hours of sleep and you're coming down off the high of a wedding, getting up the next morning and of course I wanted to get breakfast because, heaven forbid, we miss a meal, that was probably a mistake. I wish and I've said that a couple of times that's the only thing I would have changed either stay another night, book a later flight, whatever. But even coming back from our honeymoon, we had a similar scenario where we got delayed in the Orlando airport for six hours five hours, something like that.

Lauren 23:42

I really wonder why I don't like to fly.

Ryan 23:45

Well, and so here's the funny part this only happens when you're with me.

Lauren 23:48

It does, it only happens. And do you remember how many hours we were delayed?

Ryan 23:52

Out of Orlando, Mm-hmm. What in like five or six?

Lauren 23:55

Thirteen, we went through TSA three separate occasions.

Ryan 24:01

So Orlando's airport does not have a. They have food options past security, but it's all like fast food, think Wendy's. I think the cleanest thing they had was like a Qdoba or something like that back then and so all of the like sit down like the Chili's, and the real restaurants were on the wrong side of security if you're trying to fly. So if we wanted to leave the terminal and go back and get food, we had to go back through security again.

Lauren 24:23

So the first time we went through security then we found out the flight had been delayed Each time. It had been delayed enough for us to say, oh okay, let's go one sit down at a restaurant and two budget for the time to get back through security.

Ryan 24:37

We got a lot of queso that day.

Lauren 24:38

We sure did, and margaritas.

Ryan 24:41

And this was before we had pre-check too. I will say that. So whatever the line was is what we had to do.

Lauren 24:46

And it's Orlando where it's kind of a come all situation.

Ryan 24:49

Yeah, it's all one big security line, unfortunately there for all terminals, so you're kind of stuck with what you got. So I will say too that that was a later flight. It really wasn't that late of a flight.

Lauren 25:04

It wasn't.

Ryan 25:04

It was kind of, let's say, because we were delayed 13 hours, we got back that day.

Lauren 25:07

We got back that day, but remember the airport was closed Once we got back.

Ryan 25:15

You couldn't get your. There was something we couldn't get that was like locked up. Our bags made it back.

Lauren 25:19

okay, we were dropped off at the airport so we didn't have like a valet car or anything your parents picked us up at the airport and there was something that was locked up in the baggage jail that we had to like. Hunt somebody down to go pick up.

Ryan 25:29

I wonder if one of our bags made it before we did, or for some reason it probably got onto another flight or an earlier flight or something, because we got back late enough that the airport was essentially shut down.

Ryan 25:41

Well, I've had that happen where my bags end up on an earlier flight, because when you have a route that's traveled heavily, there might be a flight every hour to hour 45 minutes, and if you get there two hours prior, there's a chance your bag could accidentally end up on the earlier flight. So maybe that's what happened and they didn't know what to do with it, so they locked it up.

Lauren 25:58

And I do remember that, because we just wanted to leave at that point and there was a flight that we were on where they lost our luggage. You remember that and we live like an hour away from the airport and they actually had to bring it out to us at our house.

Ryan 26:05

Yeah, they tried not to, I do remember that they tried not to Wasn, wasn't that vegas? Was it or no, it wasn't vegas, it was something. But yeah, they. So if you're, if the airline loses your luggage, and I will say it takes a lot for them to legitimately just full-on lose it and not find it it's misplaced for the first bit, it ended up on the wrong plane, whatever, which, by the way, tip air tags I have them in our check bags now and that's a little peace of mind because I can see where they are.

Ryan 26:33

So at least I know, have an idea of where they are in the world.

Lauren 26:36

Yet another thing that's only happened to us, not to Ryan by himself.

Ryan 26:39

Well, I don't, in all fairness, I don't check my bags that much when you're not with me, true, and so typically, when you're with me, we're taking a slightly bigger trip, so we're gone either longer or we're going somewhere that requires more stuff, because that's kind of how we fly, yeah, and so we end up having to check a couple of bags, like week-long cruises, but we have to fly to them, that kind of stuff. So, yeah, in that scenario, unfortunately, you have to kind of find your bag, but I just luckily now I've got a trip coming up that you're not coming that I do have to check a bag.

Lauren 27:05

So fingers crossed. That's right, so I guess that could be.

Ryan 27:08

another tip too is that if you are having to check a bag, make sure that you have, like, some of your necessities with you just in case, to at least kind of get through the night or a couple hours or be okay with what you have on, I guess is the other side, you know like you have your glasses on you in case, for some reason, you have to take your contacts out, or right if you have medicines to take, make sure you have them which is typically not great on the medicines portion of that, but I I always put a couple of, so I will in my toiletry bag.

Ryan 27:35

it goes in wherever my clothes are and I do put enough contacts to make it through the trip. Plus, one day, just in case. Now, I also put two sets of contacts in my carry-on camera bag, whatever you want to call it.

Ryan 27:52

carry-on camera bag, whatever you want to call it, because well, I've had it happen before, because airplanes are so dry in the cabin while you're flying that my contacts have come out while I'm flying, and so I typically will put my glasses and a couple of extra pair of contacts in my carry-on just in case, there you go. So okay, Last but definitely not least, have we ever made any budgeting or money mistakes when it comes to traveling?

Lauren 28:15

All right, nothing major.

Ryan 28:17

I'm going to send this over to our CPA.

Lauren 28:19

To the accountant. I think that this is one of those like our eyes are bigger than our stomach kind of situation. Most of the time we're like, oh, we're going to go on a ski trip, it's only going to be like $1,000.

Ryan 28:31

Oh yeah, that was the room for two nights.

Lauren 28:36

And so I think that's kind of what happens most of the time is that.

Ryan 28:40

Under budget.

Lauren 28:42

I was going to say overspend sir.

Ryan 28:46

Tomato tomato.

Lauren 28:47

Exactly. And now you know how this happens. You know we budget and we're like, oh yeah, I guess we do have to eat.

Ryan 28:58

Well and food can get expensive in some places when you start talking about like Disney and ski towns and Hawaii these places where food is just overpriced. It's a chunk.

Lauren 29:10

It sure is. And our honeymoon in Disney. I bought an extraordinary amount of stuffed animals, which required the purchase of another bag to get them home.

Ryan 29:18

We had to buy a $40 duffel bag that said Disney on the side that I don't know that we've ever used again.

Lauren 29:23

I think I used it.

Ryan 29:24

I just don't know for what. Just to say that I used it Gym bag.

Lauren 29:27

Maybe. So I think that, as far as budgeting goes, we just yeah, we've probably missed the mark more times than we've hit it.

Ryan 29:34

I like cake, to be honest.

Lauren 29:36

We like food.

Ryan 29:38

And apparently stuffed animals.

Lauren 29:40

That was a one-time thing. I didn't do that anywhere else.

Ryan 29:42

Yeah, because you realized I had to see what you did at some point.

Lauren 29:45

Do you remember how you found them?

Ryan 29:47

No, I'd hid them behind the couch. I do remember that. I remember I found them All the bags.

Lauren 29:51

And I didn't want all the bags out in the middle of it because it was getting cluttered, so I put them behind the couch.

Ryan 30:02

Well, not only them being behind the couch. So we spoiler. We went to disney for our honeymoon and we had a really nice room that had a little sitting area and then it had the bed off to the other side and we were there for almost a week and so you had been slowly collecting these things and I don't know if it became an out of sight, out of mind situation.

Lauren 30:14

A little bit did it okay, or if it was fully intentional no, it was a little out of sight, out of mind, so the things that you're like that one.

Ryan 30:22

Yet I just need to put it in my bag. At some point you just kind of shove over. There was like a wet bar kind of a thing, and over by the couch there was like you could stick some stuff over there in the corner. Well, that's where things that like dirty clothes weren't over there, it was. Just it became a catch-all for things we need to pack and I don't remember how I found it, but yeah, let's just say we started. I'm pulling that stuff out of the bags like the day, like we're getting ready to pack to head back right and it's like what and why did what is all this?

Lauren 30:50

we were together the whole time. You saw every bit of that.

Ryan 30:53

The other thing that disney's amazing about is, at the time I don't know if you can still do this or not you can ship that stuff back to your room.

Lauren 30:59

Oh, absolutely, and that's what happened.

Ryan 31:01

And you'd forget.

Lauren 31:02

Yeah, a little bit. So the other thing as far as budgeting goes is know when you need to take cash and when you're going to use your card, Because for some international things, for security you're going to use your card or whatever, but sometimes you do need to have cash on hand and so just understand kind of how much and what things.

Ryan 31:19

Well, and I'll say this is the one thing that I get into a little bit of a pickle for sometimes that when you're not with me because you typically have, because you pay some of the horse world you typically have a little bit of cash on you. Yeah, for the most part Not always, but for the most part I never have cash on me, never, I just don't carry it, remember teeny weeny wallet situation.

Lauren 31:40

That's right, there's nowhere for money.

Ryan 31:41

Remember my big old wallet got to pay all the horse people yeah so for me, I've been in a scenario where I really should have tipped a couple of bucks to a guy because of something like oh, I have no money, whoops. So I've thought about that now and when we do travel, we will get some smaller bills out and take care of that. Like we have a cruise coming up in march and the cruise line we're going on you don't prepay your tips and so spoiler in a little bit you're gonna realize I'm going on another cruise even sooner and I've thought about that because I looked at it. I'm like there's no prepaid tips anywhere on here, which means you have to tip there. So can I put it on the stateroom cart, can I not?

Lauren 32:23

Which ends up being my credit card.

Ryan 32:25

I don't think so.

Lauren 32:26

I don't think you can put it on your card.

Ryan 32:27

And so that becomes one of those. Well, I don't want to stiff the guy that takes care of me all week either, and so it's like okay, well, how much do I need? You should tip that person. I think you should tip that. I know that people don't Shame on them. I think you should. I'm not saying, give them 20 bucks, but give them a couple of bucks. They help you with your bag. They're nice, they chat. They give you a bottle of water. Give them a buck.

Lauren 32:53

Well, and even like all-inclusive resorts or something, if you go get a drink. Yeah, it's paid for, but it's still nice to tip the bartender or the waiter or something a little bit here and there.

Ryan 33:02

Exactly.

Lauren 33:02

Just have that sort of stuff on hand.

Ryan 33:04

Yep. So okay, same point as money, but I think one of the biggest mistakes we made when it came to it's not really budgeting, but when we came to money and travel is not maximizing points and miles.

Lauren 33:18

And that is very true.

Ryan 33:20

For the longest time. That might as well have been Greek to us.

Lauren 33:25

So do you remember that we actually did start doing that when we first got married, to pay for part of the honeymoon?

Ryan 33:32

Yeah, I do, but it wasn't the way that we do it now.

Lauren 33:36

No, it was totally different, and so we have learned an awful lot.

Ryan 33:40

We actually got a Disney card. We did so, essentially, what we were doing is earning credit yes to disney um, and we used that to help pay for my stuffed animals yeah, all the stuffed animals we had mickey, everybody, um, and so we that right it. It became like a cash back thing, but specifically towards Disney.

Lauren 34:02

Right, because we knew we were going there.

Ryan 34:04

Now, obviously, when I'm saying that, like we yes, you did that and that was just more of a we were you were still in college or just out of college, were you?

Lauren 34:15

out of college. Still Just no, I was like a month shy of graduating. Yeah, that's right.

Ryan 34:19

So you were done but not graduated. I was like a month shy of graduating, yeah, that's right. So you were done, but not graduated, right? And so I mean, let's be honest, we didn't have any money.

Lauren 34:25

We was broke y'all.

Ryan 34:26

And very nicely, from my parents. Our honeymoon was a gift from them. Now the actual travel portion, everything once we got there, all on us, and so we tried to find ways to maximize and make our dollar. I don't know, maximize, make our dollar go further? Yeah, exactly, it's probably the right way to say that.

Lauren 34:45

And we're still desperately trying to do that because to me.

Ryan 34:48

Well, now we're doing it because we're just cheap.

Lauren 34:49

Well, and now it's a game.

Ryan 34:51

It is. So. That's the problem. It's become entertaining for both of us to be completely honest with you, because you like the how can I get more miles to maximize that portion of it, and I like the how can I redeem them in a better way to get more bang. For my point I was going to say a dollar, but it's not a dollar, it's a point.

Lauren 35:09

It is.

Ryan 35:10

And so now we use everything from you name it. But we accumulate points and, to be completely honest, we haven't paid full price for some aspect of travel now in quite a while. Now it doesn't work on everything. No.

Ryan 35:22

It works on a lot. But like we have a couple of cruises coming up and I believe our flights were paid for with points and our pre-hotel stays were paid with points, the cruises you can do but the value is not there to do it, it's not so you just pay for those. But we've talked about taking a handful of trips. In fact we've been, we're going to do a whole upcoming trips and kind of bucket list things that we want to do here coming up soon and a big one is going to be hawaii.

Lauren 35:51

That trip should be almost completely paid for on points and miles and that was a goal we set out a while back was to finagle it well, Well and we've been able to do it a couple of times.

Ryan 36:03

We've lost it a couple of times because stuff got more expensive, which made more points, and then COVID was a thing. But now we're there to where we can actually kind of plan that out and get an idea and put it on the books actually and go. So anyway, I would say points and miles and if you do want to learn more about points and miles, we've partnered with the Daily Drop, which is a fun thing. From Karen Nate started it Just kind of how to maximize. It's how we learned how to do a lot of that stuff. So we have a link in the show description down below. If you're curious about some of our favorite credit cards that we use to accumulate those things or just want to learn more about it in general, there's a link for both those things as well, and I really do think that not using those benefits and like planning with those tools, I think that's a big mistake.

Lauren 36:46

But I'm also going to say the CPA accountant in me that I don't actually have a degree. I just do this for funsies. Believe it or not. If you're carrying a credit card balance, that is not worth it. This is for people who pay off their credit cards and are, you know, in that financial group?

Ryan 37:03

I normally start those talks with we are not preaching, carry a balance. They have some fiscal responsibility If you can't keep a credit card at a reasonably close to zero balance and I get that it's a moving target.

Lauren 37:15

so it's never truly zero worth that Right?

Ryan 37:17

Well, you can charge all you want. You can get those points until you pay it off. So let's be honest. You can put $10,000 on a credit card. You can buy a truck with a credit card in some scenarios, but they're not giving you a point until you give them money for that thing.

Lauren 37:31

So, so, yes, I'm off my soapbox. Just wanted to say that.

Ryan 37:34

No, and that's a good soapbox to be on, because fiscal responsibility is important. Now, if we could just get our country to figure that out, like the government. Okay, I am very curious. I would like to hear if you have any big foopas. If you may, so, do us a favor in the show notes down below or on social media, shoot us a message, tag us in something, or you can send us a text message. In the next episode, we're going to be talking about some of the trips that we're going to be taking in 2024, as well as some bigger things that we have maybe slightly further on the horizon. That's not actually planned yet, and if there's some good ones from this show in that text message or the DMs, I'm going to read them. Lauren, just gave me a look. It's a podcast.

Lauren 38:17

You're talking to the microphone. I'll let you interpret.

Sharing Travel Mistakes and Tips

Ryan 38:21

Yeah, you didn't need the mic for that, so shoot us those. Let us know what your biggest mistakes are. If you have any tip to avoid mistakes, we will pass those along. Also, one last little housekeeping thing If you could do us a favor, whatever you're doing on your favorite podcast platform, if you could hit that little follow button, whether it's on Apple, spotify or whatever one Also rating and actually writing out a review would be massively helpful, because that's how the algorithm on the podcast side likes to push everything out. So, thank you guys, so much. Anything you want to add?

Lauren 38:53

Nope, I'm good.

Ryan 38:55

Ready to go on a trip? She's not ready to go on a trip. So, thank you guys, so much for listening, listening, and we will catch you next week. Bye you.